00:00Councillor Thomason, commiserations. 20 of the last 24 years on Lancashire County Council.
00:06How does this moment feel?
00:07Obviously, it's very, very disappointing. I've loved being a county council.
00:12It's been a privilege, and especially to represent my hometown.
00:16But, you know, there's a tsunami going across local government today.
00:21And, you know, as we said, if you're in the way of a tsunami, you're going to get hit.
00:25And that's how it feels a bit today.
00:27Not just the county council, though, of course, the Labour opposition group leader.
00:32At the time of the general election last year, you must have had high hopes of taking control of this council.
00:37But, you know, last year people voted for change.
00:41And, sadly, I have to say, they are not seeing the change that they voted for.
00:46In fact, the only change we're seeing at the moment is more and more bad news.
00:51And I'm hoping that the Labour leadership at Westminster will sit up and take notice of what the people are telling them.
00:57And you feel that that was an avoidable situation, that the National Party has put people like you in?
01:02Absolutely. I mean, I know, even though I've been doing it for a long time, and I know that there are people in Leyland who vote for me.
01:09Because most people are not that engaged in local government and tend to vote for a national party on how they feel on the national picture.
01:18Clearly, for the Tories, it's been an absolute disastrous day.
01:22But it's not been much better for us either.
01:24And we do need our national leaders to sit up and take notice.
01:30What do you think they could have done differently?
01:32Well, they could have honoured the promise to Waspsey women.
01:35They could have tapered in the cuts to the winter fuel allowance, so it was more gradual and a bit fairy.
01:43They could have not threatened disabled people with cuts to benefits.
01:46But these, frankly, don't feel like Labour things.
01:51They just don't feel like Labour things.
01:53I know they've got to balance the books, and I know things are difficult.
01:57But many, many Labour voters would say, this is not how we want you to do it.
02:02Just focusing on the County Council for a moment, as we stand here, it looks like there's every possibility reform will take control of the authority.
02:09What do you make of that, and what prospect do you think they have of successfully running the Council?
02:15I genuinely worry for the County Council, because clearly, the vast, vast majority of reformed candidates have no experience of local government.
02:26And having spoken to one or two today, don't know what they've let themselves in for.
02:32But they've got to get on and deliver for the people of Lancashire.
02:35And so, that being the case, I hope, I hope, they do a reasonable job, because it's important stuff.
02:43We've talked during the campaign about the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities.
02:48You know, and a reformed candidate I spoke to today, I asked about SEND, and they didn't know what SEND stood for.
02:54The acronym for?
02:55The acronym for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
02:58And now they are going to be part of the group that's running the County Council.
03:01But it will, this will change things for reform locally, because they can no longer be the party that points at things and says,
03:10aren't things terrible?
03:11Because now they've got to get on and deliver.
03:16Thank you very much.
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